AVCHD Accelerator

[DSE 3]

if you use a Mac and encode much for YouTube, Google vid, FaceBook, etc, you might find the ElGato AVCHD accelerator to be of use.
A magazine I write for sent one to me to evaluate, and it really is faster than the other accelerators for Mac out there. It's very fast to convert .mts files from the CX series camcorders (testing with a CX7 @1440 x 1080 and CX100 at 1920 x 1080).

[PharmerPhil 0]

I have read great reviews for this product, but all are pretty basic reviews, and I haven't seen real comparisons to it versus several different Mac computers doing it on their own (i.e., no hardware accelerator). I am guessing that the more powerful your machine is, the less of a benefit you will see (but I am not sure of this). I have both a Mac Pro with 2 x 2.8G Quad Xeons and a MacBook Pro with a 2.4 i5. But I can't seem to find info as to how much faster it might make either of these machines individually. Any hard-core, numbers-based review forthcoming?

[DSE 3]

I'll prolly put some real numbers to it, but it's all relative.

On my 2.4, it sped up the process by approx 65% (encoding from CX7).

[jtnesbitt 0]

Whats the quality like? I get shit quality anytime i convert as opposed to import. I have FCP 5.1 but if I try to convert mts files they come out looking awful. However, if I use iMovie09 to import right from the CX they come out looking great, but it does take a while.

"If this post needs to be moderated I would prefer it to be completly removed and not edited and butchered into a disney movie" - DorkZone Hero

[DSE 3]

Import is a convert, its just they've taken away the options so you can't screw up.

the conversions are quite clean. I haven't run a pixel map yet to see where it's blending (if at all)
It is converting 1440 x 1080 to 1920 x 1080, and that's where they'll usually prank with pixels. I gotta dig out a map and shoot it.